


As You Wish

by luckywitch



Series: Happiness is a Warm Taser [7]
Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Relationship, Storytelling, pop culture references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-21
Updated: 2012-05-21
Packaged: 2017-11-05 18:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/409504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luckywitch/pseuds/luckywitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even though Darcy finds herself at the Avengers Mansion more days than not and it’s more like a dorm where all her friends live than a mansion, she still finds herself dumbstruck that she’s there and suppose to treat it like a second home. She’s incredibly grateful that she’s staying here while she’s ill, because Darcy knows she could have taken care of herself at home, but it’s nice to know that if she really needs something that JARVIS or Steve is there. Plus, their fridge is fully stocked and she’s in no condition to deal with lines at the grocery store.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As You Wish

**Author's Note:**

> AN: I took some liberties with her symptoms and her ailing/recovery time.  
> I was stuck on the inside story for a while and it wasn’t until I actually took my phone and hit record, telling the story out loud that I was able to write it. Lesson learned.  
> All the different circus acts represent someone. Some are more of a stretch than others.

The first sign Darcy realizes that something is up is while she’s watching tv with Bruce.  The other Avengers are downstairs sparring and training, while Bruce usually meditates during this time, except there just happened to be a _Star Trek: The Next_ _Generation_ marathon on, and Bruce is Team Picard all the way.

She’s waiting for practice to be over, so that she can take Steve on one of their cultural assimilations, which really means that they both wanted to see the Mary Poppins musical and didn’t want to tell anyone else in fear of being teased. She’s not sure how many “spoonful of sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” jokes she could stand. Although she thinks the answer is one and after that she’d be itching for her taser.

Right now, it’s her throat that’s itchy. True, the last episode they watched, “Chain of Command,” was pretty heart-wrenching. She’s hoping it’s from being swept up with emotions, but can’t help but fear it’s from the flu that’s going around S.H.I.E.L.D. She plies herself with orange juice and watches the crew of the Enterprise face off against Moriarty.

 

* * *

 

When Darcy gets home from the musical, her voice is becoming raspy and her throat is sore, and there goes any chance that she’s not getting sick. She goes to the cupboard underneath her sink and takes some old medicine she found, which should still be good and crawls into bed. Her last thought before she succumbs to sleep is, ‘I hope I feel better in the morning.’

 

* * *

 

Darcy wakes up the next day feeling like she’s hung over, except for the fact that she didn’t get to have the outrageous time that happens before the hangover. Her head is throbbing and hurts every time she moves it and her body aches all over. She’s freezing and burning up, burying herself deeper into her blankets. Eventually she gets up, needing a tissue to blow her nose, and brings the entire box back over to her bed. After laying back down and agreeing to never stand up again, she reaches for her phone and calls into the office to let them know that she won’t be into work today. Darcy has a funny thought about the fact that she’s never seen Coulson sick or take a personal day and wonders if he somehow found a serum like Steve’s. The idea makes her giggle until she’s coughing and her whole body is aching all over again. ‘Forget it,’ she thinks before nodding off.

She wakes up a couple hours later, making the sacrifice of getting up and going to the bathroom to relieve herself. She takes the last of the medicine she has on hand and goes to her kitchen because she knows she should eat something.  Unfortunately her fridge is pretty bare except for shelves filled with condiments, some lean pockets, wine, and leftovers she needed to throw out a week ago. Thankfully, she did buy some bananas in the hope of making banana bread next week for breakfast, and they’re still a nice, bright yellow. She grabs one, leaning against the counter and forces herself to eat it. Halfway through, she’s full and tired of chewing, but manages to eat the whole banana, because her stomach will like her better when it's full with medicine rather than an empty with medicine.

She slogs her way back to her bedroom and soon is fast asleep.

When she wakes up again, this time it’s 1 pm, and she calls Jane hoping to catch her at lunch.

“Hello,” Jane answers.

“I’m siiiiiick,” Darcy whines in response.

“Oh, you picked up what was going around, huh?”

“Yea and it sucks. I feel miserable and don’t have any medicine, soup or liquids. Could you pick some up for me please? I don’t think I can make it to the store,” Darcy says yawning.

“I can get something for you. Just make sure to have your phone on.”

“Thanks Jane,” she says exhausted, eyes already shut again.

“No problem, Darcy. Now get some more rest.”

Darcy does exactly just that.

 

* * *

 

Darcy is woken up with Jane looming overhead, shaking her awake. "C'mon time to get up," she says gently.  
  
Darcy, a bit dazed, mumbles a weak, "What?"  
  
"You're coming with me sweetie,” she replies, pulling the covers off of Darcy.  
  
Darcy lifts her head to glare and notices the full duffle bag Jane's carrying. "Where we going?" she asks, yawning and putting on her glasses.  
  
"I'm taking you to the doctor and then we'll get you back in bed. "  
  
Jane eases her into her Avengers zip up hoodie and her faux fur slipper boots that she'd never wear in public if it wasn’t for the fact that she’s currently delirious or only if she was going to the garbage shoot or laundromat. They shuffle to the door and Darcy doesn't even process that they're sliding into a car instead of taking the train.  
  
The doctor's appointment goes as well as any other and with no significant wait. After being swabbed and prodded with questions, Darcy is prescribed an antibiotic. Jane is able to get it filled for her then.  
  
They get back into the car and with the press of a pill against her hand, and a press of a water bottle to her lips, she takes her medicine.  The lengthy drive puts Darcy to sleep.  
  


* * *

  
  
A couple of hours later Darcy wakes in bed. The room is mostly dark, with the uncovered window letting in the lights of the city. It's as good a nightlight as any.  
  
She reaches to her left to grab her glasses off her nightstand, but this nightstand is higher than the one in her apartment and she whacks her hand against it.

 

“Ow,” she mutters, sitting up to blurrily look around.

The room’s lights turn on to a muted glow. “Hello Miss Darcy,” JARVIS quietly says.

“JARVIS?”

“Yes, Miss Darcy?”

“What am I doing here?”

“Dr. Foster and Mr. Rogers both agreed that you should be temporarily moved to the Avengers Mansion, seeing as Dr. Foster had to travel out of town and could no longer take care of you and you were believed to be too ill to take care of yourself. Mr. Rogers volunteered to look after you, since he is unable to catch your illness. However, Master Stark is able to contract your illness and expresses an intense desire not to, and has placed you in one of the older, unused wings. “

“Oh,” she declares, still a little befuddled, “okay.”

“If you need anything, please let me know and I will alert the correct people.”

“Thanks JARVIS. Do you think you could play some mindless tv in the background?”

“Coming right up, Miss Darcy,” the A.I. replies as she settles back into bed. “Now playing, _Sex and the City_.”

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Darcy wakes and performs her ablutions before rifling through the bag Jane packed for her. It’s filled with lounge pants, t-shirts, a pair of jeans, and a sweater plus plenty of undergarments.  ‘Jane always did like to be prepared,’ she thinks. She changes into a pair of clean clothes, and throws her dirty clothes aside.

She heads down the hallway, trying to find the kitchen. Normally she’d go straight and then turn right, but from this new wing, she learns that she needs to turn left twice and then turn right. It takes her a little longer than usual and not because she was a tad disoriented, but she does feel a little better than yesterday, not a whole lot, but at least her body temperature feels closer to being regulated again.

She makes a bowl of oatmeal and pours herself a glass of orange juice and heads back to her room. Shuffling though her bag again, she finds her medication and swallows it down, chased by the orange juice. She sits down in the bed, propping herself up with the pillows, and turns on the tv with the touch screen remote by the bed.

Darcy watches the end of  _Phineas and Ferb_ and manages to eat half a bowl of oatmeal and drinking most of her orange juice before falling asleep again.

The rest of her day continues along the same pattern of watching tv, sleeping, and occasionally drinking liquids or eating when need be.

That night when Steve gets back from S.H.I.E.L.D. he drops by her room with a tray filled with a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a peanut and butter and jelly sandwich, and a glass of water.

As she eats dinner, they chat about how she’s feeling, and how his day was. Steve tells her about Tony pulling one over on Fury, and she laughs so hard that she snorts, which causes Steve to start laughing and gets her laughing harder.

JARVIS plays for them the episode of _Mythbusters_ that is about deconstructing superhero myths. They both get a pretty good laugh out of that.

By the end of the episode, Darcy is yawning. The past couple of hours being the longest she’s been awake in two days. Steve smiles and mentions how late it’s getting and picks up the tray of food, heading towards the door.

Darcy stops him before he leaves, saying, “Thanks Steve. For letting me stay here and well, everything.”

He fondly smiles at her before replying, “It’s no problem, Darcy. Wouldn’t want you to have to recuperate on your own. Now, should you need us...”

“I’ll call,” she says reassuringly.

“Goodnight, Darcy.”

“Goodnight, Steve,” she calls back as he shuts the door.

She settles herself underneath the covers and falls asleep.

 

* * *

 

The next day is very much like the day before but with a hot shower thrown in for a good measure. She changes into her lounge pants, t-shirt and hoodie and when she steps back into the bedroom she see’s You standing there with breakfast.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she says affectionately towards the robot, grabbing the tray and sitting down with it.

You beeps in response before scooting down the hall to get into whatever mayhem the robot can find.

Darcy eats the meal of fruit salad and toast before taking her medicine. She places the finished tray on the floor and relaxes in bed. She dozes during the “quality” morning talk shows.

Around one she wakes up to reruns of _Matlock_ on the tv. She heads to the kitchen, taking less time to get there this go around, and finds Dummy cleaning. Darcy’s going to pop into the fridge and then out, leaving the robot to its duties, but Dummy beeps at her before tugging on her shirt. The robotic arm points to the stove, where there is a pot of warm potato soup. She dishes out a bowl and as she leaves, she pats Dummy on the hand and says, “Thank you.”

She spends the rest of the afternoon watching _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ episodes that JARVIS pulls up. ‘I’m surprised Tony doesn’t own a streaming company yet, but it’s probably for the best since he’d probably trying and created a portmanteau and something like Stark Streaming would turn into something horrible like Streaking,’ she wonders.

Darcy gets a call later on in the evening from Jane asking how she’s feeling. They chat about the reason Jane had to go out of town—to collaborate with another researcher in Chile—and how that trip is fairing. She gets Jane to promise that if she ever needs to go to that observatory in Hawaii that she will bring Darcy. Darcy makes sure to assure Jane that JARVIS, the robots, and Steve are taking good care of her. Jane ends the conversation, since it time for science, and Darcy grins at the thought.

She uses her phone to check and answer a couple of emails, before she’s interrupted by Steve carrying in a tray of food. This time it’s tomato soup and grilled cheese and Darcy is all of kinds of excited. He mentions that Tony almost made him take a bath in Lysol to kill any germs.

He tells her the rest of the news of the day, such as Thor needing to head back to Asgard for a couple of days and the assistant they have to temporarily replace her while she’s sick looks harried.

“He mentioned something about a British ghost following him,” Steve says confused.

“A British ghost? What?” she responds taking another bite out of her sandwich. “Do you think he meant JARVIS? JARVIS, are you harassing the temp that replaced me for a bit?”

“I was instructed to find the answers to some queries and found it expedient to ask the gentleman at your station. It is not my responsibility if he cannot differentiate a ghost from an A.I.”

Darcy barks out a laugh, while Steve looks resigned to more hijinks happening at the Avengers Mansion.

This night they watch _Dancing with the Stars_ , since Steve enjoys seeing the different types of dancing. He alludes that Thor is his normal watching buddy and loves to try out the moves. She can’t help but imagine him trying to do the salsa and gives herself a slight coughing fit. At least, he has the outfits for it.

When they’re finished watching the show, Steve takes the tray and bids her a goodnight. Darcy lets out a big yawn and finds herself more tired than she thought. She has JARVIS play some mindless tv in the background and quickly falls asleep.

 

* * *

 

When Darcy wakes up the next day, it’s just in time for _The Price is Right_. She proceeds to spend the better part of her morning, faux bidding towards the showcase showdown. She does well for the most part, until the end where she overbids by $2000.

She gets ready for the day and heads towards the kitchen, making sure to say hi to You and Dummy. She stifles any protest and makes herself a bowl of oatmeal, already feeling much better than the day before. Her temperature is steadier and while a bit higher than her average, it is nowhere near fever level. Her nose is no longer stopped up and now seems to aiding her in getting all of this crud out of her body.

Darcy’s day after that is spent in bed, surrounded by blankets, watching part 1 and 2 of _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ , answering the occasional email, reading up on celebrity gossip, and—not that anyone would be able to prove it—having JARVIS pretend to be a British ghost to her temporary replacement. She figures if they guy already thought it... Besides, she’s sure if Tony found out he would have egged JARVIS on to continue,  so why shouldn’t she in his stead? Besides, according to JARVIS the guy is getting bowled over by Tony, which is going to make her job harder in the long run.

She manages to eat lunch during her mini movie marathon and succeeds in staying awake the entire time, as well. As soon as the credits roll, Darcy closes her eyes for a nap.

When she wakes up, she decides to stretch her legs and grab a snack.

Even though Darcy finds herself at the Avengers Mansion more days than not and it’s more like a dorm where all her friends live than a mansion, she still finds herself dumbstruck that she’s there and suppose to treat it like a second home. She’s incredibly grateful that she’s staying here while she’s ill, because Darcy knows she could have taken care of herself at home, but it’s nice to know that if she really needs something that JARVIS or Steve is there. Plus, their fridge is fully stocked and she’s in no condition to deal with lines at the grocery store.

She’s in the kitchen debating what to eat that is ok for sick people, because as much as she wants that cheeseburger and fries, Darcy’s pretty sure that’s not what you’re supposed to eat to make you feel better, but it has to be a good sign that she’s getting back to normal she thinks. In the fridge there are a dozen or so containers of soup from a couple of nearby restaurants. There’s everything from butternut squash to minestrone. She picks the wonton soup, heats it up and heads back to her room to watch some more tv and play Mario Kart against JARVIS. The AI, of course, wins, but they’re some close matches.

Later in the evening her movie of choice is _The Princess Bride_ , going for a sick day classic. She’s watching the Dread Pirate Roberts follow Vizzini to the Cliffs of Insanity, when a voice to her right says, “Want some trail mix?”

Darcy flails in the bed, blankets flying as she stares at the voice in shock. “Could you not be stealthy secret agent all the time?”

Clint grins at her as he offers her the bag.

She pointedly ignores him as she fixes the blankets, smoothing them out.  He shakes the bag towards her directions, and she huffs, “At least tell me this isn’t Bruce’s mix?”

“Like I’d risk him Hulking out for granola and carob? Get real, shock tart. Now c’mon, we’re getting to the best part.”

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means,” she replies in time with the movie, grabbing a handful of peanuts and M&Ms.

They continue to watch the rest of the movie together in relative silence, both quoting along with some of the memorable lines of the movie. Clint occasionally points out some of the flashier moves they use comparing to how it differs in the real world.

‘For an archer, he knows quite a bit about sword fighting,’ she thinks.

When the movie ends, Darcy comments, “I love this movie, but I wish Buttercup could have done something more besides just wait.”

“What? You mean like if she had a tazer?”

“Well yea, or took part in the sword fighting or something!”

“Of course,” he laughs.

“Like your version would be better?” Darcy challenges.

He pauses for a second, before confidently replying, “Yes. Yes it would.”

“Ok this I have to hear, Howard Pyle.”

Clint shoots her a challenging look and straightens up taking his resting feet off the bed, and sits upright in his chair. He puts on a big production of clearing his throat and warming up his voice. “You continue to look sick and pitiful like the kid did in the movie.”

Darcy glares at him and settles into her blanket.

“Perfect. Now, once upon a time, a long time ago—”

“Heard it!” she interrupts.

“You didn’t have to embody every trait of the kid. Besides, all the best stories start like this. Its classic! If you want to tell the story yourself, I’m more than happy to let you.”

“Go ahead and world build Tolkien. I’ll be a good listener.”

“Good. Where were we? Ah right, once upon a time there was a circus and it was the best circus in all the land. It wasn’t too small and it wasn’t too big, it was in fact just right—can it Goldilocks, I can see you wanting to say something. This is a little more Disney than Game of Thrones.”

Darcy grins at him and keeps quiet.

“It had the best jugglers, the most daring acrobats and even the most exotic of animals. And all who visited the circus loved it and had a great time.

“One day the circus received a new act. It was a very special girl who could breathe, eat, and play with fire without being burned. It was an extraordinary act and the ringleader was impressed. He signed her immediately. She was welcomed to circus with open arms by everybody except for the tightrope walker.

“You see, while she demonstrating her talent she almost burned the tightrope walker’s rope and he was extremely upset. He was not the friendliest to her. It was ok, because the amazing flamethrower, made friend with everyone else that she met.”

“Oh, how Sam and Diane of them. Is this a kissing story?” Darcy jokes.

“I’m going to skip all of the good parts if you don’t stop interrupting. Now then, even though the tight rope walker would try to avoid her, he would hide way up into the high spaces; he would crawl under to the lowest places; and balance on the tiniest of ledges she’d always be around. She would say hello to the acrobats and hello to the exotic animals, the lion in particular loved her. She’d even got along with the stern ring master and the strong man, but the strong man’s looks were deceiving. Yes, he was incredibly strong, but most people were afraid of him, fearing him to be angry. He was not mean, but was in fact very kind.

“One day, the flamethrower wondered why she was not friends with the tightrope walker when she was friends with everyone else.  She assumed he was busy balancing and practicing, always on the ropes edge, teetering and tottering. She made it her special duty to become his friend.

“On the first day she said hello. He gave her a silent nod back and continued walking. It was something but it was still too cold for the fiery girl’s liking. On the second day she gave him a big smile and invited him to sit with her at lunch with the wild animal trainer and equestrian trick riders. He declined and found a place to sit by himself. On the third day, she tried to include him in a card game she was playing with the pantomiming and vaudevillian clowns. The tightrope walker turned down the offer and perched on a ledge. He could not escape the flame loving girl and was starting to learn more about her, even if he did not want to.”

“Dude seriously needs some other circus friends or an iPod,” she comments.

He gives her an exasperated look and continues, “On the fourth day, the flamethrower did not want to give up, but she was running out of ideas. She decided to ask the magician and his assistant. They told her the tightrope walker loved a special type of berry that grew on a certain tree. That tree would only produce those berries when there was a high heat, such as a fire, that would release them. If she walked far enough west, she could find this tree and be back before the show. She thanked the magician and his able assistant, packed a light bag and set off on her journey.

“Around lunch time, the tightrope walker was suspicious that he had not heard the flamethrower around the circus and that she had not tried to approach him yet. He kept an eye out but did not see her at lunch. A couple of hours before the show, he finally gave in and asked around if anyone had seen her. No one had, and it was unusual for the fiery girl not to be practicing before show time. The magician’s assistant came and found him and told the tightrope walker what the flamethrower had asked about. He decided to go find her and packed a light bag.

“The tightrope walker headed west. He did not know how long he walked but the sun was close to setting which meant that the circus would be starting shortly. He kept walking, being blinded by the sun as it slid down past the horizon and soon saw the tree. It was located on top of a tall hill with slippery slopes and uneven ground. The tightrope walker set out and did what he did best: balance on precarious surfaces. In no time at all, he was at the top of the hill and saw the flamethrower huddled underneath the tree.

“The fiery girl was ecstatic to see him and told him that she was too scared to climb down by herself. He told to hop on his back and he would walk them down. She was nervous, but hung tightly to the balancing boy’s back as he carefully worked his way back down. At one point, he hit a particularly loose patch of dirt and his foot slid down the hill just a little bit, but enough to scare the boy and the girl. Unfortunately this slip caused his foot to get caught in a gnarly root. He was not injured, but they were stuck. He pulled, wiggled and yanked his foot but could not get it free.

“The flamethrower said that she had idea and told him to keep very still. She pulled some supplies from her bag and soon had a small flame going that she used to burn through the root. The tightrope walker was uneasy because she had almost burnt down his rope, but he kept his breathing steady and thought about how much he knew about her and how she had never injured anyone or done anything wrong to anyone. He discovered that he, in fact, trusted her. He kept his leg still and soon was free. They reached the bottom of the tall hill quickly after that and soon hurried back to the circus. When it became too dark, the flamethrower pulled more supplies out her bag and made two torches for them to see. They made good time and were back to the circus before it started.

“And—oh, you’re asleep,” Clint said, looking over to Darcy. “Guess you don’t get the kissing story after all,” he laughs.

Because Darcy was asleep she didn’t get to hear the end of the story (at the end of that circus show the flamethrower gave the tightrope walker the special berries and they became friends, or in the kissing version, they kiss), she didn’t feel her blanket get tucked, see the lights dim, and she didn’t feel the soft lips brushing against her forehead.  She also didn’t see Clint leave or the knowing look Tony gave him when he entered the living room (Natasha didn’t acknowledge his entrance but was secretly smirking on the inside). JARVIS stayed mercifully silent.

 

* * *

 

Two days later, Darcy is almost feeling 100% and is back at S.H.I.E.L.D. wondering if Hallmark made a card thanking people for taking care of you and letting you stay at their house while you were sick. ‘Probably not,’ she thinks in resignation.

A little while later she finally settles on baked goods—her grandmother’s apple pie recipe and chocolate chip cookies—to show her appreciation because her construction paper cards of awesomeness seems a little childish. She starts writing down all the ingredients she’ll need.

 

* * *

 

When she delivers the still warm baked goodies later that night, it’s a feeding frenzy. She’s pretty sure there’s some covert fighting going on to make sure that they get a piece. Darcy just shakes her head and laughs (and is thankful she made a separate batch for Jane). 


End file.
